Big Mission Western America Phase

Spent a few days in Boise, then a day at Anthony Lakes, then Missoula, then Portland then the Bay. Lots of driving and some flying in between. It was great to see family and some old friends. Good for the soul. (Thank you, Mr. Seger, for saying it well.)

And photos? Hmm... We are kind of waiting for pictures that anybody who happened to be with us might have taken. Thanks to Tyler Adams for sharing his pictures like the one on the right. Unfortunately, we took no shots of Boise. (We are counting on Grammy-cita for those! Thanks for the Idaho/Oregon adventures Grammy-cita and Gramps D!) But here are a few we took before our camera power ran out:

Missoula:

Pritchard's beautiful baby:




Thanks for all the good times, Nana and Grampa Bill! The kiddos loved the plethora of dinosaurs that had been arranged for their arrival.





Missoula's going big time!



The old Milltown haunts. Boppa's clerking days, back when it was Finky's Foods. Clerks describes the scene well. From New Jersey to rural Montana, it's all the same!



This is slightly different, too. Boppa's handywork in the background.




Here are the kiddos being very quiet at Jake's house.

Later, they were also being quiet, and managed to cover the Neal's entire upstairs with a fine layer of shredded styrofoam. Certain parents were so upset that we almost canceled our highly anticipated zoo trip. But, we overcame it. The zoo was awesome. Look, two large hairy mammals with offspring!

The only shots we got of the Gilders.



Gilds, and Bear. We didn't get Jo-Jo and gestating Jackson on film, but they were there, too. We crashed in their nest.



Given the strenuous nature of our itinerary, there was a lot of crashing in random places. Airport floors were particularly popular.





Checking out Voo-Doo Donuts in Portland. Pretty much a mandatory stop. Any place with slogans like "The magic is in the hole" and "Good things come in pink boxes" ought not to be missed. In addition to the slogans, their donuts are pretty tasty, too.







Fortunately, they have two locations. With our buddies, we weren't about to stand in line here!
We love donuts, but come on!



A line like that could lead certain family members to defect to the nearby Magic Garden.

Lots of cool, organic, and fun things going on at the co-ops and coffee shops in Portland. Here's Jake enjoying his local coffee co-op place.


The new beverage of choice is Kambucha. DeWayne was on it way back before it was cool. When it was still called immortality tea. Nothing like fermented fungus drinks brewing in the fridge!

Portland is awesome! We love it! If we had to live in a big city, it would definitely be Portland. Thanks to Jake, Megan, Lori, Jen, and Chris for letting us visit!

After Portland, we went to the Bay Area and visited friends. We also got to wander through Google land, which was interesting. Our picture taking during this portion of the adventure was non-existent. But we got to visit with Matty, Kevin, Mino & LB, Gilds, Jo-Jo, and Chi-Chi. Good times! We spent most of our time in Los Gatos, but also some time in Davis.

On a side note, the Toyota Sienna is pretty awesome. It was our rental vehicle during all the above adventures, and it was really great. I can see why minivans dominate the family scene.

Then, it was on to El Salvador!

Huxley Reeve Zinn's (First) Big Adventure

Wow! It has been a blue sky maternity/paternity leave, for sure. After two weeks of enjoying Kodiak and HRZ, we took our show on the road. Huckleberry Pie, Paxson Boodah, and Stoko Loco Joker handled the trip with flying colors. We visited many friends and family members in two countries (El Salvador and Honduras), six states (Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Washington, California, and Texas). To everyone we saw, thank you for the adventures!

And to top it all off, we've been welcomed home with the most glorious Kodiak sunshine you could imagine. We are entering our 6th straight day of cloudless skies. Feels like summer! Actually, far better than most of last summer! We are all sporting Kodiak sunburns, after spending the last few days at various Kodiak beaches. Yes, sunny and 45 is our version of paradise.

Back to our trip... we had much to fear as we traversed security in Anchorage with two screaming toddlers on lock-down, and a slightly colicky baby in our bjorn. But our fears were unfounded! All the flights were a breeze, amazingly. The kiddos slept or were happy for most of the long flights. And Huxley's colic seemed to disappear as soon as we were on the road.

Pictures, pictures, pictures... well, that is kind of a long story. We left our camera battery charger in Davis, California, so we are weak on shots after that point. The good news is that we were so enamored by Greg and Sonja's camera that we bought one. And it takes awesome pictures. So since we've been back here, we are back into taking good pictures.

We only took a few shots in Anchorage, but it was a lovely day. We dropped some Sarah Pale off at Steve's house, visited Natalie at the courthouse, and hung out with Team Wilyo. We enjoyed some tasty uppity Fire Island bread products before hitting the skies for Portland.

(We might have to get back to our Golden Donut roots for our bread-product fix next time.)

Portland was rainy of course. But a few hours out of town, we saw the largest shooting star of all time. Genevieve: Hey, check out that shooting star! Dawson: Where? Genevieve: Over there. Dawson: Where? Genevieve: Right there. Dawson: I see it. Genevieve: Wow, it is still going!

We now each have approximately 36 wishes that will come true. Don't worry, we'll be sure to share our lottery winnings with you. And please, enjoy the world peace!

The Joys of Potty Training

Forgot step one.

(Step one: Lift the lid.)

We are getting there! Paxson helped Stokely on this one. As he pointed out, "Mom....you are not getting him potty trained." So the helpful 4 year old figured he'd better start the training.

And you thought we were going to have some new cute baby photos. Well, this blog is in the spirit of the movie we watched last night in Rani's honor, Jackass 3D. She would've loved it.

Somehow, whenever the kids are quiet for a few minutes, we've come to expect large brown messes of one sort or another. Chocolate, dirt, excrement, etc. They are getting quite good at finding and reaching all of our good chocolate hiding spots. Very wily, they are. Here's what formerly was a large stash of Hershey Kisses, now a large stash of Hershey Kiss wrappers.


Okay, we can't very well just have a blog with poo and empty chocolate wrappers. Better put up some Captain America shots. We haven't been taking many pictures, but here are a few great ones Grammy-cita got:

Here's part of the large tasty mammal we've recently been eating. Kodiak happy cow makes for a happy tummy!





Three Muskateers, aka The Hanson Brothers:




The most recent shot of Huckleberry:

Other random action shots.

Flying Time

Wow, has it been a month already? Time flies when you are outnumbered!

Thanks again for the visits, Nana, Grammy-cita and Aunt Rani! Aunt Rani came all the way up from Dallas Texas for a short speedy visit. Fortunately, Grammycita took lots of great pictures.

Huxley is growing. He has also made up for his first three weeks of mellowness. He is still generally mellow, but he has some stomach pain from time to time. Colic. There is a lot of gas in that tummy of his, and he is not pumped about it. Seems like it's been getting better lately. We are hoping the doctor's prediction of three months of stomach issues is wrong.

Pax and Stokes are still pumped about Hux. We haven't settled on any nicknames yet. Any other news? Nope... just enjoying family time!